Web for sporting glove

ABSTRACT

A glove having a web section attached within an opening in the glove. The web section is formed from a sheet of material which is directly attached to the glove with the exception of at least one edge portion of the sheet which is not directly attached. This edge portion of the sheet of material is folded over with the folded portion then having a plurality of parallel lateral slits which extend from the outer extremity of the edge portion towards an opposite edge of the sheet of material. In this manner, a plurality of looped sections are formed within the folded edge portion. Alternate ones of the looped sections are offset so as to form first and second aligned rows of such looped sections. A first lace passes through the looped sections of the first row and a second lace passes through the looped sections of the second row. These first and second laces are attached to the glove so as to secure the folded edge of the web section to the glove.

llnited States Patent Brockman 1 Get. '7, 1975 [54] WEB FOR SPORTING GLOVE [57] ABSTRACT [75] Inventor: Larry J. Brockman, Nocona, Tex.

[73] Assignee: NoconaiAthletic Goods Company, A glove having a web section attached within an open- Nocona, Tex. ing in the glove. The web section is formed from a [22] Filed: Feb- 1&1975 sheet of material which is directly attached to the Appl. No.: 550,520

Primary Examiner-Werner H. Schroeder Assistant Examiner-Peter Nerbun Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Watson, Cole, Grindle & Watson glove with the exception of at least one edge portion of the sheet which is not directly attached. This edge portion of the sheet of material is folded over with the folded portion then having a. plurality of parallel lateral slits which extend from the outer extremity of the edge portion towards an opposite edge of the sheet of material. In this manner, a plurality of looped sections are formed within the folded edge portion. Alternate ones of the looped sections are offset so as to form first and second aligned rows of such looped sections. A first lace passes through the looped sections of the first row and a second lace passes through the looped sections of the second row. These first and second laces are attached to the glove so as to secure the folded edge of the web section to the glove.

5 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures WEB FOR SPORTING GLOVE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION I The present invention relates 'tothe provision of a sporting glove having a web section connected to the glove in an opening between the stalls for the thumb and fingers. I I a In various different types of sporting. gloves, such as baseball gloves, including fielder mitts, first baseman mitts and catcher mitts, a web section is connected to the glove in the space between thestall for receiving the thumb and the stalls for receiving the fingers of the user. In the provision of such a web section, the lace passing along the top edge portion has been attached to the web section in a typical over-lacing fashion. Such a lacing procedure leaves thelace completely exposed and hence subject to an increased amount of wear. It is often this exposed section of the lace which first wears out during the use of the glove and hence limits the usable life of the glove. V c, 7

One approach which has been taken in order to help protect this lace on the top edge of the web section is to cover the lace with an additional piece of material which is folded over the lace, after it has been attached to the web section, so as to completely enclose the lace. Such a construction is shown in US. Pat. Nos. 3,169,250 and 3,042,929. While such an additional piece of material helps to protect the lace, this material is subject to similar wear problems as the lace since it is merely held in place by a simple stitching to the web section. Hence, such construction fails to significantly increase the durability of the baseball glove.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an improved web section for utilization within a sporting glove.

An additional object of the present invention is to provide a web section in which the top edge portion is constructed in such a manner so as to provide an increase in the durability of the section.

A further object of the present invention is to provide the top edge portion of the web section with a construction which helps to protect the lace which is utilized for connecting the edge portion to the glove so as to increase the durability of the web section.

In order to accomplish these objectives, the outer edge portion of the web section is folded over and formed with a plurality of slits so as to form a plurality of looped sections. These looped sections are then alternately arranged within first and second aligned rows. A first lace passes through the looped sections of the first row and a second lace then passes through the looped sections of the second row. These laces in turn are attached to the glove so as to secure the edge portion to the glove.

The web section is formed from at least one sheet of material which is substantially directly attached within the opening between the thumb and finger stalls of a baseball glove. At the outer extremity of this web section, the sheet is folded over so as to form the folded edge portion. In this folded portion, a plurality of parallel slits are formed, such slits extending from the outer extremity of the folded edge portion towards the opposite edge of the sheet of material. The slits thus form a plurality of looped sections within the folded edge. These looped sections are then alternately off-set so as to form the two rows of looped sections. The firstand second'lace which passthrough the looped sections can be formed from a single piece of lace material. If such a single piece" of material is utilized, the lace is first passed in a first direction through the first row of the looped sections. the lace is attached to the glove and then the lace is passed in the opposite direction back through the second row of looped sections.

It is also possibleto form the web section with the utilization of two sheets of material. In such an embodiment, one of the sheets would be folded over the other sheet so as to form the folded edge portion.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS DESCRIPTION ,OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT As illustrated in FIG. 1, a baseball glove I has at least two stalls for'respectively receiving the thumb and fingers of the user. Thus the fielder mitt I has a thumb stall 2 and a plurality of finger stalls 3a, 3b, 3c and 3d. While a fielders mitt is illustrated in FIG. I, catcher mitts and first baseman mitts also have at least two such stalls.

A web section 4 is connected in the opening between the thumb stall 2 and the finger stall 3a. This web section is directly connected along three sides to the glove by the lacing 12. The top edge of the web section. i.e., the edge portion facing away from the glove, is obviously not directly connected to the glove. This edge portion, however, still needs to be attached to the glove in some manner in order to more securely connect the web section within this opening. In providing a lace connected to this edge portion, it is desirable to provide a connection which, while being relatively strong, still enables flexibility of the web section. It is also highly desirable to provide a connection which can be easily formed and yet provides for substantial durability.

The web section 4 is formed from two sheets of material 9 and 10, as illustrated in FIG. 3. The sheets 9 and 10 are sewn together as represented by the connecting thread 11. The sheet 9 is folded over at the edge portion so as to form a folded portion 5. A plurality of slits 13 are formed in the folded portion 5 so as to form a corresponding plurality of looped sections. Alternate looped sections 6 are offset from looped sections 7 so as to form two aligned rows of such looped sections.

A first lace passes through the first row of looped sections 6. A second lace 8b passes through the second row of looped sections 7. The ends of the laces 8a and 8b are attached to the thumb stall 2 and the finger stall 3a. It is also possible to utilize a single piece of lace material for the laces 8a and 812. Such a single piece of material would first pass through the first row of looped sections 6, would be attached to the glove, would then pass back through the second row of looped sections 7 and finally be attached to the other stall of the glove.

In this manner the edge portion is securely attached between the stalls of the glove so as to provide a strong but flexible connection. The actual lace, however, is not exposed at the outer extremity thereby preventing excessive wear which would otherwise occur. Furthermore, since the lace need only pass along a relatively straight line through'each row of looped sections the connection between the lace and the folded edge portion can be simply and expeditiously made with a minimum amount of labor.

lt is noted that the above description andthe accompanying drawings are provided merely to present an exemplary embodiment of the present invention and that additional modifications of such embodiment are possible within the scope of this invention without deviating from the Spirit thereof.

I claim:

1. A glove having a web section positioned within an opening in the glove, said web section comprising: a sheet of material being substantially directly attached to said glove except for at least one edge portion thereof; said sheet of material being folded over at said edge portion; said folded edge portion having a plurality of parallel lateral slits; said slits extending from the outer extremity of said edge portion towards an opposite edge of said sheet of material so as to form a plurality of looped sections; alternate ones of looped sections being offset so as to form first and'second aligned rows of said looped sections in said edge portion; a first lace passing through said looped sections of saidfirst row; and, a second lace passing throughsaid looped sections of said second row; said first and second laces being attached to said glove so as to secure said folded edge to said glove.

2. A baseball glove having at least two stalls comprising: a web section attached between said stalls, said web section being formed of a sheet of material having one edge portion facing away from said glove; said edge portion being folded over; a plurality of substantially parallel slits being formed within said folded edge portion so as to form a plurality of looped sections; alternate ones of said looped sections being offset so as to form two rows of said looped sections; a first lace passing through said first row of said looped sections; and, a second lace passing through said second row of said looped sections.

3. A glove as defined in claim 2 wherein said first and second laces are formed from a single lace material passing in a first direction through said first row of said looped sections, being attached to said glove and then passing in an opposite direction through said second row of said looped sections.

4. A glove as defined in claim 2 wherein said web section is formed from a sheet of flexible material.

5. A glove as defined in claim 2 wherein said web is formed of two sheets of material and one of said sheets is folded over the other of said sheets to form said folded edge portion. 

1. A glove having a web section positioned within an opening in the glove, said web section comprising: a sheet of material being substantially directly attached to said glove except for at least one edge portion thereof; said sheet of material being folded over at said edge portion; said folded edge portion having a plurality of parallel lateral slits; said slits extending from the outer extremity of said edge portion towards an opposite edge of said sheet of material so as to form a plurality of looped sections; alternate ones of looped sections being offset so as to form first and second aligned rows of said looped sections in said edge portion; a first lace passing through said looped sections of said first row; and, a second lace passing through said looped sections of said second row; said first and second laces being attached to said glove so as to secure said folded edge to said glove.
 2. A baseball glove having at least two stalls comprising: a web section attached between said stalls, said web section being formed of a sheet of material having one edge portion facing away from said glove; said edge portion being folded over; a plurality of substantially parallel slits being formed within said folded edge portion so as to form a plurality of looped sections; alternate ones of said looped sections being offset so as to form two rows of said looped sections; a first lace passing through said first row of said looped sections; and, a second lace passing through said second row of said looped sections.
 3. A glove as defined in claim 2 wherein said first and second laces are formed from a single lace material passing in a first direction through said first row of said looped sections, being attached to said glove and then passing in an opposite direction through said second row of said looped sections.
 4. A glove as defined in claim 2 wherein said web section is formed from a sheet of flexible material.
 5. A glove as defined in claim 2 wherein said web is formed of two sheets of material and one of said sheets is folded over the other of said sheets to form said folded edge portion. 